The secret to surviving slashie Change Management roles

In April, I shared the concept of a “slashie” role, a term I coined on a webinar in 2021 to describe dual roles that have more than one focus or expertise such as a Change Comms role, Program/Change Manager role, or Change and Process role (read the blog post here). While slashie roles can help you get a foot in the door of a new career, provide variety, and build skills, there’s one big risk to look out for: burnout.

You see, slashie roles can look appealing on the surface but might be hiding a sinister truth underneath. That instead of being an even split 50/50 between two focus areas, it’s actually two full-time roles that the project or company didn’t have the budget to hire for so they squeezed it into one. When you get into the role, you’re spread super thin, over capacity and fretting about your performance because you can’t do both sides of the “slash” justice in the 40-hour week you have. 

So what can you do about it? Here’s 5 survival tips.

Survival Tip #1: Set expectations

During the job interview, be sure to understand exactly why the role is a slashie role and what the expectations are. Is it because they think the project is small so it’ll be a breeze? (It often won’t be.) Is it because there’s someone else doing a portion of the job? (There often won’t be.) Is it because the project or company doesn’t value those two different skill sets? (Highly likely.) Is it because you’ll focus on one part of the role at the initial point of the project lifecycle and another part of the role at a later date? (Possible, but not always how it pans out). Once you understand why the role is slashie, you can then set expectations in the job interview, during onboarding, and when meeting new stakeholders around what your role is and what you will and won’t be able to do given it’s a dual role. Go in with this clarity and you can set yourself up for success.

Survival Tip #2: Enlist BAU support

If you have existing BAU (Business As Usual) teams in the organisation you can partner, work with your leaders for their support. This might be a Comms Team, Marketing Team, Training Team, Process or Continuous Improvement Team, Portfolio Team etc. They can do some of the heavy lifting of strategy, planning and delivery, often they know the process and channels used in the organisation to get things done and distributed, and in many cases, even if they cry “over capacity” at the start, they realise at some point they’ll need to own this work in BAU so they might as well have a hand in creating it upfront!

Survival Tip #3: Focus on strategy and planning

As you start to become more of a trusted change advisor, you’ll naturally start to stick more with strategy and planning (i.e. direction) than with all the doing (i.e. delivery). This is the major mindset, value and positioning shift from Change Management to Change Consulting. If you’re in a dual slashie Change role, you might only have capacity for the strategy and planning of both sides of the role, so you can set people up for success then coach and build capability for others in the project or business to own delivery. 

Survival Tip #4: Outsource admin

Sort of linking #2 and #3 together, you might have the capacity to do strategy, planning and delivery but major administrative tasks may push you over the limit of capacity. If you’ve got someone like a Project Assistant, Executive Assistant or junior Change Analyst who can take on tasks like scheduling, data entry, meeting minutes, loading things to SharePoints, requesting and collating information for documents, organising travel/venues/catering for events etc, use them as much as you can. It can be great exposure and experience for them, and provide a much needed extra pair of hands for you.

Survival Tip #5: Leave the role

If the role is truly two full-time roles and there isn’t other support in the project or business to help but there’s an expectation you’ll deliver it all, it might be time to pull up your big girl panties and set some boundaries. If you can’t influence the hiring process or get paid more appropriately for the volume of work you’re doing, know that you always have the option to end your contract or resign from your role, especially if it’s not what was sold to you in the interview process. Treat yourself like a business and protect yourself from burnout - it will cost you less in the long run.

Did you know it can often be easier to focus on strategy and planning, influence the hiring/resourcing process, and get paid more for additional or discretionary work beyond Change Management when you position and price yourself in the consulting market, rather than the employment market? Learning how to become an independent Change Consultant is exactly what I’ll be covering in my in-person retreat in November. 

If you’d like to level up your change leadership in luxury and build the transformational skills and mindset to take back control and choose your own clients, choose your own schedule, and choose your own rates, check out my Instant Change Consultant Retreat now:

>> CLICK HERE to find out more about my Instant Change Consultant Retreat

The Early Bird pricing for the retreat ends on Wednesday 31 July. 

>> CLICK HERE to find out more about my Instant Change Consultant Retreat and Early Bird pricing

Lata xx